Traffic supervision system

Abstract

A method and a computer system for monitoring traffic, the computer system comprising an information handling server ( 7 ) arranged to receive through a communications network ( 5 ) location data transmitted from at least a first and a second reporting means ( 3 ) in at least a first ( 1 ) and a second ( 2 ) vehicle, respectively, at least a first database ( 13 ) for storing said location data, an analysis server ( 15 ) arranged to retrieve said location data from the first database ( 13 ), analyze said location data and store data regarding the result of the analysis and/or present the result of the analysis to an operator and/or a monitoring function. The information handling server ( 7 ) and the client preferably support the Session Initiation Protocol, SIP.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 identifying location data that indicates a location of each vehicle of a plurality of vehicles, wherein different portions of the location data originates from different vehicles of the plurality of vehicles;   performing, by a computer system that is separate from each of the plurality of vehicles, an analysis of the location data to determine which area of a plurality of geographical areas each vehicle of the plurality of vehicles is located;   wherein the plurality of geographical areas includes a first geographical area and a second geographical area;   based on the analysis and for each geographical area of the plurality of geographical areas, causing display data that indicates traffic information associated with said each geographical area to be displayed;   wherein causing the display data to be displayed comprises causing first display data that is associated with the first geographical area to be displayed separately from second display data that is associated with the second geographical area;   wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the analysis indicates that a current traffic situation in a particular geographical area is relatively busy;   the method further comprising, based on the analysis, determining to control one or more traffic lights in the particular geographical area.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving, from a first vehicle of the plurality of vehicles, at a computer system, first location data that indicates a location of the first vehicle;   receiving, from a second vehicle of the plurality of vehicles, at the computer system, second location data that indicates a location of the second vehicle, wherein the second vehicle is different than the first vehicle.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 analyzing first traffic data about a first plurality of vehicles of a first type;   analyzing second traffic data about a second plurality of vehicles of a second type that is different than the first type.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the second type is an emergency type of vehicle. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein:
 analyzing the first traffic data is performed by a first analysis server of a computer system;   analyzing the second traffic data is performed by a second analysis server of the computer system;   the first analysis server is different than the second analysis server.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 performing, by the computer system, a second analysis to determine whether to control a vehicle of the plurality of vehicles.   
     
     
         8 . A method comprising:
 performing an analysis of location data that indicates a location of each vehicle of a plurality of vehicles, wherein different portions of the location data originates from different vehicles of the plurality of vehicles;   based on the analysis, controlling one or more traffic lights;   wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the analysis indicates that a current traffic situation in a particular geographical area is relatively busy. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 performing a second analysis of second location data;   based on the second analysis, determining whether to control a vehicle of the plurality of vehicles.   
     
     
         11 . A method comprising:
 performing a first analysis of first location data that indicates a location of each vehicle of a first plurality of vehicles during a first time period, wherein different portions of the first location data originates from different vehicles of the first plurality of vehicles;   performing a second analysis of second location data that indicates a location of each vehicle of a second plurality of vehicles during a second time period that is different than the first time period, wherein different portions of the second location data originates from different vehicles of the second plurality of vehicles;   based on the first analysis and the second analysis, establishing a traffic pattern.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein:
 the first time period is during a first day and the second time period is during a second day that is different than the first day;   the first time period and the second time period are the same time of day.   
     
     
         13 . A computer system comprising:
 an information handling server that is configured to receive, from a plurality of vehicles, location data that indicates a location of each vehicle of the plurality of vehicles;   one or more databases that store the location data;   an analysis server that is configured to:
 perform an analysis of the location data to determine which area of a plurality of geographical areas each vehicle of the plurality of vehicles is located, wherein the plurality of geographical areas includes a first geographical area and a second geographical area; 
 based on the analysis and for each geographical area of the plurality of geographical areas, cause display data that indicates traffic information associated with said each geographical area to be displayed; 
   wherein causing the display data to be displayed comprises causing first display data that is associated with the first geographical area to be displayed separately from second display data that is associated with the second geographical area.   
     
     
         14 . The computer system of  claim 13 , wherein:
 the analysis indicates that a current traffic situation in a particular geographical area is relatively busy;   the computer system is further configured to determine, based on the analysis, to control one or more traffic lights in the particular geographical area.   
     
     
         15 . The computer system of  claim 13 , wherein the computer system is further configured to:
 analyze first traffic data about a first plurality of vehicles of a first type;   analyze second traffic data about a second plurality of vehicles of a second type that is different than the first type.   
     
     
         16 . The computer system of  claim 15 , wherein the second type is an emergency type of vehicle. 
     
     
         17 . The computer system of  claim 15 , wherein the computer system comprises:
 a first analysis server that is configured to analyze the first traffic data;   a second analysis server that is different than then first analysis server and that is configured to analyze the second traffic data.   
     
     
         18 . The computer system of  claim 15 , wherein the computer system is further configured to perform a second analysis to determine whether to control a vehicle of the plurality of vehicles.